A deposit into an account at a financial institution, such as a retail customer might make at his or her bank, typically involves a customer personally bringing in the deposit to the financial institution or sending in the deposit for physical delivery of the financial instrument or cash. Because of this, a customer often needs to find a branch of the institution nearby and also needs to arrange to be at that location during the appropriate business hours. Regardless of the size of the financial institution and the number of branches, it is sometimes difficult or inconvenient to find the time to be in the right place at the right time to make a deposit.
When a customer wishes to withdraw funds from a remote location, automated teller machines (ATMs) are available that permit immediate access to funds from the customer's account. This type of transaction is often available even if the ATM is not operated by the customer's bank. In contrast, deposits from a customer that are intended for the customer's account are generally not available through ATMs operated by parties other than the customer's bank, and are not always a particularly efficient way of processing deposits even if the ATM is operated by the customer's bank.